Co-Workers Save Painter Overcome by Toxic Fumes

Painter David Baker owes thanks and his life to co-workers who dragged him to safety from the bottom of a fume-filled 10-foot-deep pool.

Baker, 40, a resident of Baldwin Park, was one of about a dozen workers painting and landscaping a house Wednesday in the 1000 block of Oxford Road in San Marino, San Marino Fire Department Battalion Chief Kevin Lennox said.

Baker was overcome by epoxy paint fumes trapped by high humidity in the bottom of the empty swimming pool, Lennox said. He passed out and fell onto the wet surface, upending a can of paint on himself.

Gus and Brian Dennison, father and son landscapers from San Gabriel, ran into the pool to rescue Baker but were driven back by the fumes, Lennox said. After donning protective masks, they returned and pulled Baker to safety. He was taken to Huntington Memorial Hospital, where he was reported in stable condition.

“It was just a blessing that the other workers were there and this guy wasn’t back there by himself, because that would have been it for him,” Lennox said.